Regulations should be tailored to nurture e-services not curb them

THE GOVERNMENTS OF LANZHOU in Northwest China's Gansu province and Quanzhou in East China's Fujian province have adjusted their policies on car-hailing services, lowering the threshold requirements for both cars and drivers. Thepaper.cn comments:

The rise of car-hailing services has dealt a heavy blow to the traditional taxi industry that is mostly controlled by local governments.

On the one hand, the number of taxis in cities has remained largely unchanged since the late 1990s. While over the same time the urban population has almost doubled, even increased threefold in some big cities. The shortage of taxis has therefore become increasingly evident, and the problem is especially acute during rush hours.